Current location in this text. Enter a Perseus citation to go to another section or work. Full search
options are on the right side and top of the page.

The populace stood
by and watched the combatants; and, as though it had been a mimic conflict,
encouraged first one party and then the other by their shouts and plaudits.
Whenever either side gave way, they cried out that those who concealed
themselves in the shops, or took refuge in any private house, should be
dragged out and butchered, and they secured the larger share of the booty;
for, while the soldiers were busy with bloodshed and massacre, the spoils
fell to the crowd. It was a terrible and hideous sight that presented itself
throughout the city. Here raged battle and death; there the bath and the
tavern were crowded. In one spot were pools of blood and heaps of corpses,
and close by prostitutes and men of character as infamous; there were all
the debaucheries of luxurious peace, all the horrors of a city most cruelly
sacked, till one was ready to believe the Country to be mad at once with
rage and lust. It was not indeed the first time that armed troops had fought
within the city; they had done so twice when Sulla, once when Cinna
triumphed. The bloodshed then had not been less, but now there was an
unnatural recklessness, and men's pleasures
were not interrupted
even for a moment. As if it were a new delight added to their holidays, they
exulted in and enjoyed the scene, indifferent to parties, and rejoicing over
the sufferings of the Commonwealth.